


after midnight

by denkis



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, First Meetings, M/M, Oikawa thirsting over Iwaizumi for 3k words, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, University, University Student Iwaizumi Hajime, University Student Oikawa Tooru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26356375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/denkis/pseuds/denkis
Summary: ‘Well, are you coming inside?’ Handsome Stranger asks. Startled, Tooru chokes a little at the request. ‘It’s 4am, I can’t let you stay in the stairwell or Bokuto might trip over you.’‘Oh.’ Tooru replies, inwardly cursing himself for not being his usual charming self. He decides to fix that. ‘Well of course. If you wanted me inside so badly, all you had to do was ask.’ He grins at his neighbour, who instantly scowls. Tooru decides right then and there that he is going to date that face.---------Or: Oikawa locks himself out of his own apartment and is rescued by his insanely attractive next door neighbour.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 9
Kudos: 184





	after midnight

**Author's Note:**

> i have had writers block for literally five years and haven't written since my gcse english exam so don't be too harsh on me lmao!! hope they aren't too ooc, any constructive criticism is welcomed. love u all but i love oikawa the most

One more hour. One more hour of cramming for his stupid exam is all Tooru is allowing himself.

A brief glance out of the (unnecessarily large) library window tells him that it is much later than he was planning to stay anyway – the university campus all but abandoned with only streetlights to illuminate the empty roads. Tooru’s phone lights up – a new message from Hanamaki that he will _definitely_ reply to at some point in the next three to five working days – and he immediately startles at the time displayed above his roommate’s name.

**02:47**

Tooru’s eyes widen. While the horrendously large pile of books scattered around him have been mostly moved from his ‘to be read’ to his ‘read and hope to never touch, see or be on the same plane of existence as again’ pile, he still isn’t finished. And, he has a lecture at 9am. A lecture that is immediately followed by the exam Tooru is cramming for.

Weighing up the pros and cons of pulling an all-nighter, Tooru eventually decides, with a defeated sigh, that two nights with no sleep could quite possibly kill him. Dying from fatigue in a university library would be a shitty way to go out, he thinks, scooping his remaining books into his arms to shove into his backpack.

The elevator down from the top floor seems to last a lifetime, enough time for Tooru to both reassure himself that he’s done enough studying to pass the exam and also to have a small breakdown over how much he can and probably will fail.

By the time he steps onto the street, he’s worked himself into a panic and begins the walk to his shitty apartment on autopilot.

Once he reaches the third floor of his building, slightly out of breath (because the university have been ‘fixing’ the elevator for _at least_ four years) and extremely ready to fall face first onto his bed and not wake up until 8.50am, he fishes for his keys in his back pocket. Except, he must’ve put them in his backpack. He dumps the books on the floor, one second away from tipping the entire contents of his bag onto the stairwell until Tooru’s life flashes before his eyes. He remembers this morning – _yesterday morning –_ and he contemplates throwing himself down the six flights of stairs he’s just hiked up when he remembers that he left his keys in his jacket. His very nice, very expensive leather jacket that is very beautifully draped on the back of his chair. Under his desk. In his bedroom.

Tooru has three flatmates. Akaashi Keiji, law student, quiet yet sharp and most definitely asleep at three in the morning. Kuroo Tetsurou, chemistry student, insanely attractive yet too loud for Tooru to deal with, and has a 99% probability of being at his boyfriend, Kenma’s. Hanamaki Takahiro, history student, chaotic and exists solely to cause Tooru pain – and finally reading his text message, Tooru discovers that Hanamaki is -

**[from: makki] bro i am a littl drukn but i love u xx**

**[from: makki] also i just saw tobio nd bro i think he’s finaly moved on from u. sory xx**

\- drunk, and also not home and able to let him into his room. He tries knocking on the door just in case Akaashi is, by some miracle, awake and not in the furthest room down the hall from the front door, but of course luck just isn’t on Tooru’s side today.

He sighs, sitting down on the stairs outside his door, contemplating whether attempting to sleep on his doorstep is a good move or if he should just return to the library and hope for the best. He stifles a yawn.

Looking down at his phone, he decides to reply to Hanamaki.

**[to: makki] makki i broke up with tobio 3 years ago but thank you for keeping me posted**

**[to: makki] stay safe and please come home soon**

**[to: makki] i’ve locked myself out of the apartment idk what to do**

**[to: makki] got a 9am lecture**

Tooru locks his phone and grimaces at the pile of books on the floor in front of them. They don’t look comfy, but they’ll have to do.

Being curled up on top of _‘Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy’_ wasn’t quite how Tooru pictured his evening. He drapes his coat over himself and hopes Hanamaki will be home soon, closing his eyes and drifting into what must be the worst sleep Tooru has literally ever encountered in his twenty years of existence.

‘—hey. Hey.’ Tooru is vaguely aware of someone talking near him, and he presses his face into a surface that he thought was his pillow but definitely is not. His nose crushes painfully against his face, and he groans and opens his eyes. Standing above him is possibly the most attractive man he’s ever seen in his life (maybe second to Kuroo) and he hurriedly sits up.

‘Why are you sleeping on a textbook outside my apartment?’ The handsome stranger asks, and Tooru himself struggles to remember the answer. He also notes that his hair is flat against his head on one side when he reaches up to soothe the oncoming headache from his uncomfortable sleep.

‘I left my keys in my room. My roommates are asleep or out getting drunk and I have a lecture in – oh shit what time is it?’ Tooru rambles, checking the time on his phone. ‘I have a lecture in four hours and an exam literally straight after. This was my only option.’

Tooru then takes in his appearance. Handsome Stranger is – unfortunately – wearing a hoodie, which looks good on him but also hides the muscled biceps that are _most definitely_ there. The shorts he’s wearing, however, are giving Tooru heart palpitations. Not to be dramatic, but those thighs could crush him, and he would finally experience true happiness -

His thoughts are interrupted as Handsome Stranger offers out a hand, which Tooru takes (after discreetly brushing the sweat off his palms) and stands up. If he was a little more awake and not nursing the worst headache known to man, he might have noticed that their hands fit perfectly together or some other poetic shit, but Tooru can’t look away from his sharp jawline long enough to notice much else.

‘Wait.’ Tooru starts. ‘Outside _your_ apartment?’

‘Yes? I live next door to you.’ Handsome Stranger says, pointing at the door next to Tooru’s apartment.

Tooru blinks at him in confusion. He knows his next-door neighbours – there’s Daichi, the gorgeous economics major that he occasionally bumps into when they leave their apartments at the same time. Bokuto, Akaashi’s boyfriend and also an astrophysics student – as boisterous as Bokuto can be, Tooru finds he gets ridiculously good grades and is always prepared for their lectures. Tooru would be lying if he said he wasn’t jealous. Their third (and what Tooru assumed was the final) flatmate is Nishinoya, an environmental science major, who is a tiny ball of pure energy that Tooru sees exclusively in clubs and literally nowhere else.

‘But I’ve never seen you?’ Tooru says dumbly, then corrects himself. ‘I mean, I’ve seen the others, but I just assumed there were only three people living here.’

‘I’ve lived here since the start of university, thanks for paying attention, dumbass.’ Handsome Stranger sighs and digs out his keys. He unlocks his apartment door, and walks inside, holding the door open behind him. Tooru stands in the empty stairwell and stares at him. He wonders what it would feel like to run his hands through his dark hair. It looks soft.

‘Well, are you coming inside?’ Handsome Stranger asks. Startled, Tooru chokes a little at the request. ‘It’s 4am, I can’t let you stay in the stairwell or Bokuto might trip over you.’

‘Oh.’ Tooru replies, inwardly cursing himself for not being his usual charming self. He decides to fix that. ‘Well of course. If you wanted me inside so badly, all you had to do was ask.’ He grins at his neighbour, who instantly scowls. Tooru decides right then and there that he is going to date that face.

‘Don’t make me change my mind.’ Handsome Neighbour says, walking away from the door and leaving Tooru to jump and catch it before it closes. He grabs his book, shoves them back into his backpack and follows him down the hall to the furthest room.

‘Uh..’ Tooru starts, once he is stood inside the room and looking around. His décor is minimalistic, literally just a bed, a wardrobe and a poster of a volleyball team. _Nice,_ Tooru thinks. _Hot and a volleyball player? I’m gonna date him so bad_. ‘So. I don’t usually let people take me to their rooms without knowing their names. What’s yours, neighbour?’

‘Iwaizumi Hajime. You?’

‘Oikawa Tooru. Can I call you Iwa-chan?’ Tooru replies.

‘You absolutely cannot.’ Iwaizumi replies, dropping his backpack on his bed and rooting through his wardrobe. He pulls out a blanket and hands it to Tooru. ‘Sorry, I don’t have a spare mattress so this will have to do – you can have one of my pillows too.’

‘Thank you, Iwa-chan!’ Tooru grins, accepting the pillow. He puts his backpack down and lays out the pillow and blanket onto Iwaizumi’s rug. When he stands back up, Iwaizumi passes him some sweatpants and a t-shirt, and Tooru’s heart beats a little faster at the concept of wearing some of his clothes. He watches Iwaizumi disappear into the bathroom, and changes into his borrowed pyjamas. The t-shirt is oversized. Tooru could cry.

He’s already lying under his blanket, setting an alarm for four hours from now on his phone when Iwaizumi returns, wearing sweatpants and literally nothing else. Tooru swears his heart nearly explodes. The sudden heat he feels is definitely just a result of the blanket. No other reason.

Iwaizumi gets into his bed and turns off the table lamp.

‘What time are you waking up?’ Iwaizumi asks, voice deep and making Tooru shiver.

‘I’ve set my alarm for eight,’ Tooru replies. ‘Sorry if I wake you!’.

‘It’s alright, I’ve not got a seminar until the afternoon.’

Tooru stares at the ceiling, suddenly feeling more awake than he has all day.

‘Iwa-chan.’

‘I told you not to call me that.’ Tooru is sure his voice is getting deeper every time he speaks. It’s starting to cause him actual, real pain. Nobody should sound that good.

‘Iwa-chan, why were you coming back to your apartment at 4am?’ Tooru asks.

‘I was at the gym.’ Iwaizumi replies, and Tooru dies. Right there and then, at 4am, in his next-door neighbour’s bedroom.

‘At 4am?’ Tooru’s voice doesn’t break. It doesn’t.

‘Couldn’t sleep. I prefer working out at night anyway. Less people. Anyway, why were you studying so late?’

Tooru quickly pushes all thoughts of a sweaty, tank-top-and-shorts-wearing-Iwaizumi out of his brain and focuses on the latter half of what was said. ‘I’ve got an exam tomorrow, it counts for like, forty-five percent of my overall grade and I have lost all confidence in my ability to do any sort of math.’

‘You’re a math student?’

‘Oh, no. I’m an astrophysics student. Same as Bokuto. What about you?’ Tooru hears Iwaizumi roll over, and he vaguely feels like he’s at a childhood sleepover.

‘Astrophysics, huh? I’m a sports and exercise science major.’

Tooru learns that Iwaizumi was captain of his high school volleyball team and a wing spiker. He tells Iwaizumi that he was also a captain of his team and that he played as a setter until he got a knee injury that fucked up any potential for a future volleyball career. They’re discussing their respective roommates, and as if summoned, his phone starts ringing, with the name **_makki_** lighting up his screen.

Tooru groans. ‘Sorry, I need to answer this.’

_‘Heeey Oikawa! Sorry bro, I only just saw your texts. Are you ok?’_ Tooru winces - Hanamaki’s voice is way too loud over the phone.

‘Hey Makki, I’m okay, I’m at our neighbour’s. How drunk are you?’

_‘Oh man, so drunk. Too drunk. Like, ‘I hooked up with Mattsun again’ drunk. I’m gonna feel like shit tomorrow. Wait. Neighbours? Which one? The hot one?’_ Tooru curses Hanamaki for having zero control over his volume when inebriated as Iwaizumi definitely heard that. He feels his face heat up as he hurriedly presses his phone volume as low as it can go.

‘Uh, Iwaizumi. He found me trying to sleep outside of our flat.’ Hanamaki snorts at that.

_‘You were sleeping outside? Wait, where are you sleeping now?’_

Tooru pauses and takes a breath, preparing for whatever drunken response this will elicit. ‘Iwaizumi’s room.’

Silence. And then, laughing so loud that Tooru actually jumps and nearly drops his phone. _‘Of course you’d end up in the bedroom of our hot neighbour. Be careful Oikawa, use protection and use lots of lube!’_ Hanamaki all but screams down the line before abruptly hanging up. The silence in the room is deafening. Tooru wishes he’d gone back to the library. He wishes he’d thrown himself down the stairs when he’d contemplated it earlier. He briefly considers changing his name and moving continents. Antarctica must be nice this time of year-

‘So. Hot neighbour, huh?’ Iwaizumi says.

Tooru groans. Then he spots the time. 5am. He’s spent an hour chatting to Iwaizumi. He groans again. ‘He’s so drunk. I’m so jealous. I need to sleep, Iwa-chan.’

‘Sleep then, don’t let my hotness stop you.’

Tooru can feel his smirk from across the room. He’s too tired for this. Somewhere whilst trying to think of a retort, Tooru falls asleep for the second time that evening.

The next thing he’s aware of is his stupid fucking barking dog alarm blaring directly into his ear, where he’d dropped his phone post-drunk-Makki-conversation. Tooru wants to cry.

He opens his eyes and is instantly confused, before he spots the figure on the bed and remembers his entire encounter with Iwaizumi. He shuts off his alarm to avoid disturbing the other man before quietly getting up.

‘You up? Thank fuck, that dog alarm was pissing me off. Who chooses a fuckin’ dog?’ Iwaizumi grumbles from his bed, burrowing into his blankets.

‘Sorry Iwa-chan, it’s the only alarm that wakes me up,’ Tooru laughs nervously. ‘I didn’t mean to wake you up, I’ll just grab my stuff and go. Thank you so much for helping me out tonight, I owe you.’

Iwaizumi grunts in response. Tooru grabs his bag, checks his reflection in the mirror and makes to leave.

‘Good luck.’ Iwaizumi says, just as Tooru grabs the door handle.

‘Huh?’ Tooru responds.

‘On your exam. Good luck.’

Butterflies fill Tooru’s stomach. He swallows and pushes them down. ‘Oh! Thank you, Iwa-chan.’

Tooru rushes back over to his apartment door, knocking twice before the beautiful face of Akaashi Keiji appears before him. Tooru is This Close to kissing him out of relief before he remembers that 1. Akaashi is in a relationship and 2. Tooru has sworn himself to Iwaizumi.

Akaashi raises an eyebrow.

‘You’re a lifesaver. I locked myself out last night. Had to sleep next door. I have a lecture in…’ Tooru checks his phone. ‘Forty-eight minutes.’

Akaashi merely nods before stepping aside and letting Tooru in. He heads straight for the shower, dropping his backpack in his room before having the quickest shower of his life. He pre-emptively mourns the loss of his curls, knowing that he won’t have time to make his hair look as good as normal, but decides it’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make in the name of an astrophysics degree.

While drying off, Tooru absently thinks of how easy it was to talk to Iwaizumi. Despite Tooru’s natural, endearing and frankly delightful charm, he doesn’t think he’s ever had such a long, yet not awkward conversation with anybody like that before. Ever. His heart flutters and Tooru stifles a tiny smile.

And then the dread sets in. He can’t be thinking of his ridiculously hot, stubborn yet somehow kind neighbour when he has an exam worth half of his grade in only a few hours.

With only twenty minutes until his lecture and a fifteen-minute walk across campus to go, Tooru steps out of his apartment, his keys _firmly_ placed in his hand.

What he doesn’t expect, is to walk directly into Iwaizumi Hajime.

‘Iwa-chan?’ Tooru looks at him expectantly. Iwaizumi is standing just outside of Tooru’s door, clutching a book in his hand. He’s put on a sweater, which is disappointing but also makes Iwaizumi look ridiculously soft. Combined with his bed hair, Tooru is worried that this man might actually send him to an early grave. How is he supposed to exist knowing that the hottest person to literally ever exist (Kuroo was demoted from the number one spot right about when Iwaizumi walked in shirtless) lives next door? 

‘You forgot one of your stupid textbooks, dumbass.’ Iwaizumi states, holding the book out for Tooru to take.

‘Oh, sorry Iwa-chan. Thank you for bringing it for me.’ They fall into silence, Tooru staring at the book intently.

‘Go, or you’ll be late to your lecture, Shittykawa.’ Iwaizumi says, before turning and going back through his own door.

Tooru didn’t realise he’d been holding his breath until it rushes out of him in one go. A glance at the time tells him he’s going to be late unless he speed-walks it to his building, so he sets off, sprinting down the stairs.

Later, when Tooru is attempting some last-minute cramming as his lecturer drones on, he opens his textbook. To his surprise, a small post-it note is stuck to the inside cover.

_shittykawa,_

_you owe me. let me take you out?_

_text me on X-XXX-XXX if u want to – iwaizumi_

Tooru could cry. In fact, he probably might. Not in the lecture theatre, but definitely later on.

He pulls out his phone under the desk, saves his number to his contacts and quickly types out a message.

**[to: iwa-chan <3] hi iwa-chan! its oikawa**

**[to: iwa-chan <3] i’d love to go out with you **

**[to: iwa-chan <3] just let me know where and when! <3**

**[from: iwa-chan <3] You shouldn’t be texting in class.**

**[from: iwa-chan <3] Tomorrow, 7pm, meet outside our apartments?**

**[from: iwa-chan <3] Don’t forget your keys.**

**Author's Note:**

> and then iwa takes tooru stargazing and then they go back to iwa's room anyway despite tooru bringing his keys lol
> 
> hope u enjoyed. kudos are appreciated :D


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